Baylor Law School to Hold Commencement Ceremony July 30

Follow us on Twitter: @BaylorUMediaCom
Baylor University Law School will hold its summer commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 30, in Jones Concert Hall at the Glennis McCrary Music Building on the Baylor campus.
The Honorable Ed Kinkeade, United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of Texas will serve as keynote speaker. Additionally, David Ryan Harper, the highest-ranking student in the graduating class, will deliver student remarks. Baylor President Ken Starr and Baylor Law School Dean Brad Toben also will participate in the program and will award juris doctor degrees to the 43 graduates.
Kinkeade was appointed to the federal bench of the Northern District of Texas in 2002 by President George W. Bush. Son of the late Dr. Henry H. Kinkeade and Mrs. Henry H. Kinkeade, the Judge's father pastored Irving's First Baptist Church for 32 years. Kinkeade earned his undergraduate degree in 1973 and his law degree in 1974 at Baylor. He earned a Master of Laws degree from the University of Virginia. Kinkeade was in private practice from 1974-1980, first with the firm of Dennis G. Brewer, Inc., and then became a partner at the firm of Power and Kinkeade in Irving. In 1981, Kinkeade left private practice at the age of 29 when he was elected judge of County Criminal Court No. 10 in Dallas. Eight months later, he was appointed judge of the 194th Judicial District Court. After seven years on the district bench, Kinkeade was appointed to the Court of Appeals, Fifth District, in 1988 by then-Texas Gov. William P. Clements.

Judge Kinkeade teaches legal ethics as an adjunct professor of law at Baylor Law School and at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law. He has been named Outstanding Adjunct Professor at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law six times. He has coauthored two books, Kinkeade & McColloch's Texas Penal Code Annotated and A Practical Guide to Texas Evidence: Objections, Responses, Rules and Practice Commentary, and numerous law review articles. In 2004, Texas Wesleyan University awarded Judge Kinkeade an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree, and that same year, Dallas Baptist University awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree. He was chosen the ABOTA Texas Lawyer of the Year in 2010, and as Baylor Lawyer of the Year for 2010.

In addition to his law career, Judge Kinkeade commits time to his community, having served on the board of Baylor Medical Center at Irving, the Dallas Mayor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Alcoholism and the Baylor University Alumni Association. He was appointed to the Baylor Health Care System board of trustees on July 1, 1998. He became chairman of the board of trustees for Baylor Health Care System (BHCS) on July 1, 2006, and served a two-year term. He was named an Outstanding Young Alumni of Baylor University in 1988 and received the W. R. White Meritorious Service Award from the Baylor University Alumni Association in 2003. As a volunteer, Judge Kinkeade trained his yellow lab, Bo, as a pet therapy dog, and he and Bo work with disabled patients at various health care facilities.
He is a charter member of the Fellowship Church, which his family and other individuals started in 1989 as a mission of Irving's First Baptist Church. Fellowship Church now has five locations and an attendance near 22,000 each weekend.
His wife, Melissa, also a Baylor graduate, recently retired after 26 of teaching for Irving ISD., and was named Teacher of the Year for the district in 2008-2009. They have two children - Mandy, a Baylor graduate, and Brad, who received his bachelor's degree and law degree from Baylor. Thomas Anderson, Mandy's husband, also is a Baylor graduate as is Jenna Kinkeade, Brad's wife. Judge and Mrs. Kinkeade also have one grandchild, Carole Beth Anderson.
Assisting Starr and Toben in awarding degrees during the commencement program will be Leah W. Jackson, professor of law and associate dean. Hooding the graduates will be Ron L. Beal, professor of law, and David Guinn, the Lyndon L. Olson and William A. Olson Professor of Local Government and Constitutional Law. William Cody Stapp, who will receive his law degree during commencement, will deliver the invocation.
A reception for graduates and their guests will take place immediately after commencement at the Sheila and Walter Umphrey Law Center.
Media contact: Lori Fogleman
Baylor University Media Communications
(254) 710-6275 or Lori_Fogleman@baylor.edu